The Alchemist / Ninkasi / Stone More Brown than Black IPA

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Rated June 2012. 12oz bottle w/o a very imaginative name pours up brown – copper – amber, brownish with tiny floaties and thin tan head. The aroma is big and bold even while still pretty cold and delivers chewy pine and citrus hop goodness mixing with a bit of spicy hops, earthiness and faint roasted malts. The flavor, oh yeah, I’m liking this. It unloads a great mix of pine hops and somewhat malt sweetened grapefruit and tangelo citrus hops. The hops have a modest level of hops flavor but formidable hop bitterness. This is chewy yummy and bold and maintains a nice hop flavor into the finish. Lovely.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Pours a cloudy dark brown with chunks of yeast sediment, medium khaki head, good sticky lacing. Scent leads with pine resin and citrus, backs up with toasted grain, caramel, faint notes of cocoa. Taste leads with quite bitter, but not overly flavorful hop bite, piney and moderate citrus, some floral, lightly sweet caramel with decent roast, chalky cocoa powder, nutty. Medium bodied, moderate carbonation, powdery on the palate. Unique in flavor compared to other beers in the style, quite enjoyable.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 6

Sampled on 11/1/2012. This Black IPA pours a dark brown color from a 12oz bottle. Medium to large sized beige rocky foamy head. The aroma is roasty malt, caramel, chocolate and hoppy. A medium bodied Black IPA. The malts are chocolate and roasty. The hops are grapefruity, piney and citrusy. Decent carbonation. A big hoppy Black IPA. The grapefruity clashes a bit with the chocolate malts, but its kind of an interesting combination. And yet, another interesting collaboration beer from Stone. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and crisp. Aftertaste is slightly bitter.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

As well balanced as possible for being much more of a hop monster than I thought. The malts are in the background a little, mainly Light roast, caramel, and molasses. The hops are abundantly grapefruit and pretty bitter on the back end. Nice brew.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 8

Pours a deep brown .. awesome head, lacing is impressive too .. . you can definetly see the brewers come through on this beer .. . very light roast, some sap and burnt hop fields .. . slick smooth mouthfeel, the 7.4 is well done, warms the stomach a bit .. . i might buy again if a touch cheaper .. . . Liquid breakfast. I've had champagne on my Golden Grahams.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 9

Hi, I'm Mike and I'm a hophead. I like most all IPAs. But I'm a big fan of truely big IPAs. This one stands out by itsself (more brown than black). Poured a rich carmel color, with a deep thick head. The hops dominate the taste as they sould but the malts do come through smoothly, and balanced. If you like IPAs put this one on your short list! It wont be around for long.

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

A dark mahogany colored beer with a big frothy light tan head rising robustly above. There's good hang time on this one. Settles eventually into a thick ringlet and thick film. I get grapefruit in the nose. Lots of citric hops, fruity grapefuit, some pine and nuttiness roastiness. Well crafted in medium-thick smooth body. Too bad I only had one.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

It pours "more brown than black" with some dark orange and a thick and mound-like light-tan head and copious lacing. An aroma of hops, pines and wild grasses, roasted malts, chocolate, coffee, nuts, oranges and citrus, molasses, raisins, and some peppers and spices. The mouthfeel is smooth and fairly rich. Flavors of roasted malts, chocolate, coffee, hops, orange and citrus, nuts, light molasses, raisins, and peppers/spices. Excellent!